


The Other Line

by JackyM



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is nervous, M/M, cecil is nervous, they are both nervous and it is adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 20:31:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4363202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackyM/pseuds/JackyM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What exactly what happening during "The Phone Call" on Carlos' side of the conversation?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Line

**Author's Note:**

> Just another thing from my Tumblr! uwo

Okay. This was okay. 

This was fine. 

He was a scientist. 

A scientist was always fine.

The phone was continuing to ring, and with every ring Carlos knew, he was going to get ever closer to Cecil’s voicemail, and he wouldn’t have to risk embarrassing himself, he’d just have to rehearse the little message he’d prepared beforehand. Everything would be fine and he wouldn’t humiliate himself and–”

“Hello?”

Oh. Well. There went his prepared speech.

Alright, so, Carlos hadn’t been expecting that. He really was expecting to go straight to Cecil’s voicemail, since Cecil didn’t pick his phone up all that much. Apparently his house phone was even more unruly than his cell phone, which Cecil had mentioned multiple times when the topic of Carlos possibly calling him came up. And for this reason, Carlos expected to be leaving another voicemail, one where he’d say he wasn’t calling for personal reasons, and that he had to tell Cecil something important. And then he’d tell Cecil what he had to tell him, and hang up, simple as that.

But he couldn’t do that now. Now, he had to actually talk to him. Carlos was desperately trying to figure out what to say with Cecil on the other line, feeling himself begin to nervously palpitate and flap his only free hand. 

“Uh? Hello?”

“I need to talk to you. This is important.”

No, wait, what was that? He didn’t even say hello back! Carlos bit his inner lip. Oh, god, would Cecil be upset about that? Would he? Cecil was so good at talking, why couldn’t he be like that?

“Umm. Okay,” came Cecil’s voice from the other line, notably kind of confused. Carlos whimpered quietly, unsure of how to proceed. What should he say? What should he say that wouldn’t make Cecil confused or think he was weird, or–

“Carlos? Are you…are you there?”

“Cecil,” Carlos said, abruptly, “Cecil. I think time is slowing down in Night Vale.”

Okay. That was…good? It was what he wanted to say. Carlos could feel his palms sweating and his heart racing. Just hearing Cecil’s beautiful honey voice and imagining his expression while answering the phone, smiling and being happy about it–

“Oh?”

“Last week: seven days, 24 hours each day, 60 minutes in each hour. That’s 10,080 minutes in a week, right?”

“Uh huh? Go on…”

Carlos swallowed. No, no. He had to think about science. Work things. Not personal things. Carlos took a deep breath and quickly changed the ear he was holding his phone to, so he could quickly wipe his damp hand on the knee of his jeans and give his other hand a break from continuous flapping.

Okay. He just had to talk about what he’d found out. He could do that. He could do that forever, really.

“Well, I ran some figures, and during that same amount of time in Night Vale, 11,783 minutes elapsed everywhere else in the world. That’s more than a full day longer. I don’t know what’s happening.”

There was a long pause.

Oh, no.

Carlos was confused. Had…he said something wrong? Carlos wanted to say something, anything. He wanted to say more, because really, this was an exciting topic that Carlos had wanted to tell Cecil about in great depth, because it was so exciting, and because he knew Cecil would find it exciting, too. Carlos inhaled, nervously, and was preparing to say something else when he finally heard Cecil’s reply.

“Neat!”

“N…neat? You think so?”

“Ah, oh, god, uh,” came Cecil’s quickly jumbled words from the other end of the call, “I mean, it’s more than just neat, Carlos. It’s a lot of things. Other than neat. But it’s also neat, and um, it’s neat, like, meaning it’s super interesting and I cannot believe you found that out! How did you?”

“Through extremely scientific methods, and um, many other scientific forms of thinking and researching and experimenting. It’s all extremely scientific and complex and um, you know, scientific. That is what it is, I mean. Scientific. Extremely scientific and important. Which is why, Cecil, I’d like to know if you could, umm…”

“You know,” said Cecil, slowly, “we could meet up sometime, if you want, and talk about this very fascinating subject. I’m not doing anything on Wednesday afternoon. Oh, oh, or Monday afternoon. I can meet you then, too! Really, I can make time too if you want, my schedule is pretty flexible.”

Carlos swallowed, and wished for the life of him he could make his face look as though it wasn’t covered in a blush brought up by sheer embarrassment and flattery. Every time Cecil said so much as “you look nice today”, Carlos found himself smiling for much longer than was probably appropriate. His science team had told him, he should listen to Cecil’s radio show, but Carlos was far too embarrassed and timid to possibly do that. Listen to Cecil’s wonderful voice for half an hour, in weird minutes? He was not worthy.

He also was not worthy to go on a date with Cecil. No, no, no, no, date someone so famous and wonderful and charming? If this was a date request? Is that what this was? Carlos swallowed, took a deep breath, and hurriedly prepared an answer.

“N-no,” Carlos said, quickly, “no, um, I’m really very busy working on this. Working on time lapses I mean. Working on those. I am very busy working on them, because, I’m a scientist, Cecil, and scientists need to be busy working on things like this. But, I need you to ask your listeners about this. If they know anything about the time lapses. I think it would be scientifically significant data if I were to find out if other people have noted and recorded this. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes, of course, anything for the scientific community, Carlos,” came Cecil’s reply, quick and flawless and mellifluous, “and, anything for you, Carlos. Because you’re a representative of the scientific community. That is what you are, I mean. A scientist.”

“Yes, that is what I am! A scientist, that is. A scientist. Someone who studies science. I should um, I should be going, Cecil. There’s some more things about these time lapses I need to look at. A scientist must always be studying science and scientifically important things, like time lapses, which uh…according to my science meter, are extremely scientific and important. That is what they are. That thing. Scientific and important.”

“They are those things!”

“Yes, they are! Um, so…thank you for telling your listeners, Cecil.”

“Thank you for calling!”

Carlos felt a smile creep upon his face as he began to blush and restrain the slightest giggle of excitement.

“Oh, umm, umm, uh…you’re welcome. Good. Bye. Goodbye.”

“Good bye, Carlos.”

Carlos turned his phone off, and exhaled, still smiling, still with sweaty palms, still with his heart pounding.

Well.

That had been something. 

Something indeed.


End file.
